Notes:
The Eastern flavoring of this recipe was inspired by Taylor Swift 's viral (soft) cookie.
I based/scaled the shortbread cookie from Carol's Scottish Shortbread recipe .
" >" &"< "denote approx amounts, adjust to your personal tastes
I believe the secret of a good shortbread cookie is not to over handle the cookie mixture and to keep the butter/dough as cool as possible. Yes, you could use roll out the dough and use a cookie cutter to make fancy shapes and re-chill , however, each of these steps further warms the dough....and takes longer.
Micro-planed rind of a small lemon
1> Tsp finely ground cardamon
1 bag of good earl Grey tea, finely ground
1 stick of cold butter (from the fridge), not frozen
1/2> Tsp Rose water (optional)
<1/2 cup Sugar
1.5 Cups Flour
Cream Butter, Sugar, ground Cardamom and Earl Grey tea, lemon rind and Rose water (do not over cream)
Add flour, and mix thoroughly
Bring the dough together in a lump on wax paper or parchment paper use the paper to roll dough into a 1 3/4 inch cylindrical log
Place in the fridge or freezer for 30-40 mins to chill and 'firm up' slightly
Heat oven to 350 deg
Remove paper and use a knife or metal food scraper to cut cylindrical log dough into <1/4 inch thickness disks; place on parchment paper and baking tray
Bake for 13-15 mins until almost color is almost golden